Recent Reforms of Teacher Education in the United States

Abstract

美國師範教育最近面臨各方的批評，而有大幅的改革。聯邦教育部於1983年公布「國家在危機之中：必要的教育改革」（A Nation at Risk：The Imperative for Education Reform）以至最近（1991年）布希總統頒布「公元2000年之美國：一種教育策略」（America 2000：An Education Strategy）；近十年之間，各種師範教育改革報告（建議）書，不斷出現。其中重要的攻革建議，可歸納如下：1.整體提高師資訓練水準；增加少數民族之師資名額。2.嚴格審核師範教育機構所開設之師資課程。3.加強師範生的學術背景；先具備學科知識才接受師資教育。4.加強教育專業訓練。5.重視師範生的實習；實際教學經驗為取得教師資格的必要條件。6.提高教師資格檢定之標準。7.實施教師證書分級制；依教師實際表現而定薪級。8.改善教師工作條件。9.賦予教師更大教學自主權。10.加強師資培育機構與中小學之聯繫。本文除歸納上述改革建議外，並就其中較具爭議性者，如：廢除大學部教育系、先具備文理科學士學位基礎再接受師範教育、師範課程之審核與認可制度、教師證書分級頒發、以及臨時試用教師之聘用......等問題，分別加以分析與討論。本文之總結、認為美國師範教育有其優點，亦有其問題。唯美國最近對於師範教育的改革措施，頗多值得我國借鏡之處。

Criticism of teacher education, which has been so pervasive in recent years, has continued to generate new calls for significant reform in the preparation of elementary and secondary school teachers in the U.S. With the advent of the decade of the 1990s, the teaching profession is engaged in a stage of reform similar to that experienced by the medical profession following release of the Flexner Report in 1910. Abraham Flexner's study dramatically changed the nature of medical education and practice of medicine in the U.S. In much the same way, significant teacher education reform proposals from the past ten years demonstrate the potential to exercise a similar impact upon the teaching profession. During the 1980s, the major concern over the condition of public education in the U.S. was the publication of the U.S. Department of Education's A Nation at Risk： The Imperative for Education Reform in 1983. In addressing the concern raised by A Nation at Risk......relating to teacher education, the National Commission for Excellence in Teacher Education produced：A Call for Change in Teacher Education in 1985. This commission was initiated by the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. It recommended a number of elements that should characterize teacher preparation programs in the U.S. and continued to reflect several themes emerging in reform proposals of the 1980s.